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“When you hear someone say the yellow car needs fuel, you ask who has it.”

“Who has fuel?”

“I do.”

Lidiya appears at the door with Oksana. “There you are,” she says, putting one hand on her hip. “Your mother has sent me to bring you back.”

Misha gets to his feet. “I was shaving.”

Oksana blinks.

“He supervised,” I explain.

Lidiya gestures toward Oksana. “She knows a lot about cars.”

Misha points toward the garage. “The taxi too?”

Oksana bends beside him and follows his finger. “Especially the taxi. Why is it outside?”

“It works at night,” he tells her, looking at her as if she should know that.

“Your mama is waiting,” Lidiya reminds him, holding out her hand.

Misha runs past both women, then doubles back for the yellow racer. “Bye, serious man,” he calls, waving the car.

“Goodbye, barber.”

He grins and races down the corridor between Lidiya and Oksana.

The bedroom changes after he leaves. Cars remain beneath the blanket garage, Doctor Shark lies across my medical schedule, and a damp ring marks the table beside three soldier drawings. Before he arrived, the space belonged to pain, medication, and work. Now the faint scent of apple soap lingers, and the room no longer feels entirely mine.

I shake my head and pick up the glass. I take one step toward the bathroom, then stop.

The print on the rim catches the light.

Misha is three. Vera and I met almost four years ago, and she disappeared after the gala. His age, his face, the way he puts his hands behind his back, studies every door before he enters, and pauses before he speaks leave me with one answer I need to confirm.

I call Polina.

She answers on the second ring. “You missed my calls.”

“I was being medically oppressed.”

“You asked me to pull Vera’s maternity dates, then vanished.”

“What did you find?”

“Misha was born thirty-eight weeks after the gala.”

“I need a test.”

Her tone sharpens. “What kind?”

“Paternity. Quietly.”

“Alexei.”

“No names in the system,” I say, looking at the glass. “I have a child’s drinking glass. Use the rim. My blood sample is already in the private hospital lab under Abramov’s seal.”